The University of Ottawa and its Senate, from the eyes of students

GSAED Grad House Project Manager Debate

Following the former GSAED University Affairs Commissioner and current Political Sciences representative to GSAED Council, Jonathan Duguay’s e-mail to all Councillors of July 26, 2011, that evening’s Council meeting was dedicated to allegations of scandal surrounding the hiring of Seamus Wolfe as the GSAED Grad House Co-Project Manager.

Former Student Life Commissioner and candidate for the Grad House Co-Project Manager position, Guillaume Lemieux, attended the Council meeting and distributed a letter of complaint to all Councillors as the meeting started. A sample of Mr. Lemieux’s criticism of the hiring process is:

“… after competing in the hiring process, I was informed that the executive chose the external commissioner’s boyfriend: Seamus Wolfe. This is especially troubling, given that this candidate has far less qualifications: less relevant past work experience, less past experience with GSAED, less relevant education, less knowledge of the needs of the graduate student population and the obvious fact that he has FAR less experience with the Grad House Project itself. So how this candidate is more qualified to do the work baffles many of us.”

On preliminary motions from Jonathan Duguay, the Council cleared its meeting agenda of all items unrelated to the Project Manager job, and allowed Guillaume Lemieux to make a presentation to Council. Seamus Wolfe, who was hired approximately two weeks before the meeting, also made a presentation of his work to date as Project Manager. Mr. Wolfe attributed the discovery that the project is now $1 million over budget to a “complete lack of financial oversight” by Mr. Lemieux.

After multiple in camera sessions and extensive debate, at about 11:00 p.m. the GSAED Council voted on Jonathan Duguay’s motion to “overturn the hiring of Seamus Wolfe and reopen the hiring process for the Grad House Project Manager.” The vote was 8 for, 7 against. The motion failed because it required a 2/3 majority to pass, having been added to the agenda at the beginning of the meeting.